Antonyms

An antonym is a word that is opposite in context of another word although similar in other respects. Antonyms are most likely verbs, adjectives and adverbs, with few nouns suitable as true antonyms. Most words can have more than one antonym. Antonym is the relation that exists between words which are opposite. Our day to day life is full of antonyms; from the ‘stop’ and ‘go’ of a road traffic signal to side-by-side restroom doors labeled ‘him’ and ‘her.’

Antonyms Examples:

Afraid – Confident

Arrogant – Humble

Brave – Cowardly

Destroy – Create

East – West

Black – White

Freeze - Boil

Innocent – Guilty

Compliment – Insult

Praise – Criticism

Random – Specific

Sturdy – Weak

Sunny – Cloudy

Timid – Bold

Vague – Definite

Villain – Hero

Antonym are pairs of words with almost opposite meanings. Considering short and tall which are opposite in connotation however both fall under the invariable parts of speech like adjectives and would take the same place in a sentence. Some words can be changed into antonyms merely by adding the prefixes ‘in,’ ‘dis,’ ‘non,’ ‘ir,’ ‘un,’ etc.

Consider the below sentences:

It was a cold day.

It was a hot day.

Hot is the antonym of cold because they have opposite meanings.

Examples:

Likable – Unlikable

Important – Unimportant

Forgivable – Unforgivable

Advantage – Disadvantage

Satisfied – Dissatisfied

Patient – Impatient

Legal – Illegal

Effective – Ineffective

Complete – Incomplete

Relevant – Irrelevant

Categories of Antonyms

A word may at times have more than one or more antonym where each word is the opposite of the other word. There are three classifications of antonyms identified by the relationship between the inimical meanings such as:

Graded antonyms – Where two words have descriptions that fall on a constant spectrum of the meaning. In short it deals with levels of the meaning of the words, like if something is not “good”, it may still not be “bad.” There is a measure involved with some words, and in addition to good and bad there can be average, excellent, fair, poor, satisfactory or terrible. Examples: Happy - sad; fast - slow; dark - light; wide - narrow etc.

Complementary antonyms – Where the meanings limit to lie on a continuous range besides the words have no other verbal relationship, and no middle ground. There are only two possibilities, either one or the other. Example: dead - alive; day - night; man - woman; single - married; true - false; question - answer etc.

Relational antonyms –are considered as subcategory of complementary antonyms. With relational antonyms there has to be a relationship, where the two meanings are opposite only within the context of their relationship, where both must exist. There is no verbal opposite of master, but master and servant are opposite within the context of their relationship. Example: Doctor – patient; Seller – Buyer; Mother – Daughter; Lost – found; Give - get; Above – below etc.